Mountain Zone editor Peter Potterfield flew to Santa Monica, CA to talk with Peter Horton a few days before the movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest was to air on ABC.

When actor Peter Horton learned that a television project was to depict
the May 1996 Mount Everest tragedy, he was skeptical such a complex
story of heroism and death could be told well in a TV drama. But the
veteran actor and director knew he wanted to be a part of the historic
effort, one of the few mainstream films to portray real-life climbers. So
Horton actively sought the role of American mountain guide Scott Fischer
in ABC's 1997 movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, which is now available on video.

"The filming exposed the actors to blizzards, snowstorms and temperatures of 20°-below...."

"The story has so many gripping elements that I was immediately drawn to
it," Horton told The Mountain Zone in an exclusive interview. An avid
hiker and surfer, Horton also had done some climbing. "Rarely does an
opportunity to depict that world come along. And even though there are
obvious limitations in what you can do on television in 90 minutes, I
think it came off pretty well."

From the deck of his Pico Creek Productions offices in Santa Monica, California, Horton was surprisingly candid as he recalled the arduous work put into the making
the film. He and the rest of the cast spent almost two months last
spring above 8,000 feet in Austria filming the drama. The movie is based on Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer's best-selling memoir of
the tragic climb. Krakauer himself was on location for two days of shooting to offer
advice, even if all his input wasn't necessarily adopted by the
filmmakers.

Horton and Potterfield

"Krakauer was vital to the making of the film," Horton said. "Not only
was he insightful, helping us understand who these people were, but he
helped us with the physicality of high-altitude climbing. I was shocked
at how slow people climb on Everest  and for the sake of the film
we had
to speed that up."

The filming required more than seven weeks, and exposed the actors to
blizzards, snowstorms and temperatures of 20°-below. "The filming
location in the Alps had the right features  ice falls, glaciers,
ridges, but it didn't have the scale of Mount Everest," Horton said. The
footage was supplemented by segments from the IMAX movie Everest, shot
in 1996 by climber/cinematographer David Breashears.

The complicated chain of events that lead to the Everest tragedy
challenged the filmmakers as much as the mountainous terrain. "Once you
start digging into the details of the story," said Horton, "it's like
opening one of those Chinese boxes. The more you learn, the more
intricate, the more interesting, the more convoluted, the more dramatic
that story became."

Perhaps most difficult for Horton in this role was preparing himself to
play one of America's best known climbers.

"By the time it was over, the actual experience was terrifying. The cold
and storm was so real, the pain of it was very upsetting to me..."

"I tried to learn as much as I could about Scott as a person," Horton
said, "because I was not playing a fictitious character, I was playing a
man who not only was real, but who was alive just a year before. So it
was more than a matter of finding this character within myself. And
since I was to recreate the events of his death, you begin to understand
that how you portray this person is going to contribute to a real man's
legacy. So you feel a real sense of responsibility."

More even than responsibility, Horton said he felt "echoes" of the real
people who died in that terrible tragedy. "As you do a scene, you kind
of feel his presence. I don't mean to sound mystical, because I'm not
inherently mystical or new age, it's just that there's a real sense of
these people's presence."

As he prepared for this challenging role, Peter Horton thought about
contacting Scott Fischer's family. In the end, he decided against it.
"I wanted to get it right. If someone I loved was going to be depicted
in a film, I would want the actor to get it right. Ultimately I
decided that it would be callous and inappropriate to talk to Scott's
wife."

Horton said one of the most difficult scenes for him was the one
in which Scott Fischer died. Beyond the emotional elements Horton had to
deal with as an actor, he also found himself in a full-on mountain
storm, which complicated the shooting.

"Playing that scene," recalled Peter Horton, "was unique for me 
not only was I preparing a scene in which my character dies, I was preparing a
scene where a real person died a year ago, and doing that in real
blizzard conditions. So it became much more real, much more visceral,
and less like acting than anything I had done before. I was lying in the
snow with my parka off and my gloves off, as Scott was found, and I was
literally freezing to death."

"By the time it was over, the actual experience was terrifying. The cold
and storm was so real, the pain of it was very upsetting to me. It made
me not want to go further into the world of Scott Fischer  that
is, the terrible world of his death," Horton said.

After the filming was complete, Horton followed up by climbing the Kautz
route on Mount Rainier in the Cascades of the Pacific
Northwest. "It was the hardest physical
thing I had ever done," Horton recalled. "I really enjoyed the
experience, but it was serious. On top, I was nauseous and
uncomfortable, but when I got down I felt a real sense of satisfaction,
a real tangible piece of self knowledge. So maybe I get a little of what
climbing is truly all about. But the pain of the experience doesn't make
me want to run right out and do it again."

For Horton, the Everest tragedy is clearly a powerful story, one
that he feels deserves more in-depth treatment than what can be done in
a television movie.

"The issues in this story are extraordinary, like a Greek tragedy," he
said. "I think it's worthy of a longer feature film. I'd like to explore
the complex interrelations between people, why one person's will to live
is stronger than another's, what it means to measure yourself against
something tangible, like a mountain, and why people do that."

Surprisingly, Horton is as concerned about how Fischer's family reacts
to the film as he is to its success.

"My primary concern is that Scott's kids and family feel good about what
we did. I can only hope they feel that it wasn't too intrusive, and that it is something that contributes to their dealing with grief as opposed to
contributing to their grief."